In order to study the earthquake response behaviors of cooling tower, the large-sized universal finite element software ANSYS is used to establish the structural finite element model for super large scale indirect air-cooled tower in a power plant, and its response spectrum and dynamics time-history is analyzed under the action of horizontal earthquake. The calculation results show that the acceleration amplification coefficient of cooling tower pillar increases along with the tower height, while that of tower drum decreases along with the tower height, so the acceleration amplification coefficient reaches the maximum value at the pillar-drum junction. The result obtained with dynamic time-history analysis is more than that with response spectrum analysis, in which the maximum value increases by 27.90%. Therefore, it is very necessary that dynamic time-history analysis on seismic response characteristics is taken as a comparison, supplement, checking calculation method in the course of design. Strengthening measures should be carried out on the pillar-drum junction in the structure design of cooling tower located in the high seismic intensity area.